Rasa Dalibagaitė1, Aistė Buitvidaitė1, Gitana Ramonienė2
1Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Medical Academy, Faculty of Medicine, Kaunas, Lithuania
2Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania
Abstract
Background. The level of obesity among women of childbearing age continues to increase. Obesity in women is a common problem, and its effects on pregnancy are usually overlooked. The study aimed to assess the common method of delivery and the rates of induction and augmentation of labor among obese pregnant women.
Aim: to assess the common method of delivery and the rates of induction and augmentation of labor among obese pregnant women.
Materials and methods. A retrospective case-control study was conducted in the Lithuanian University of Health and Sciences (LUHS) hospital, using data from their birth registry. Two groups of pregnant women, who gave birth in 2021 were analyzed and compared. The first group consisted of 334 obese pregnant women, and the second group consisted of 324 pregnant women with normal BMI. IBM SPSS software was used for data processing. Results with values of p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results. Results provide that more cesarean section surgeries (33.3 % vs 18.2 %) and vacuum extractions (1.5 % vs 1.2 %) were performed on obese pregnant women compared to women with normal BMI. Natural delivery was more common among women with normal BMI (p < 0.001). Obese pregnant women were more likely to experience induction or augmentation of labor. In comparison to women with normal BMI, induction, and augmentation of labor were more often performed on obese pregnant women (36.4 % vs 42.5 % and 12.4 % vs 25.8 % respectively). Women with normal BMI tended to have fewer interventions for initiation of labor as compared to obese pregnant women (51.2 % vs 31.7 % respectively).
Conclusion. In our study, cesarean section surgery, induction, and augmentation of labor were more frequent amongobese pregnant women than among normal-weight pregnant women.
Keywords: obesity, obstetric outcomes, cesarean section surgery, labor induction, augmentation.